NASDAQ Dubai today announced that Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has given final approval for all trading of its listed equities to take place through the trading platform of Dubai Financial Market (DFM), starting on Sunday 11 July, 2010.
The move is part of an outsourcing strategy to increase trading volumes on NASDAQ Dubai and strengthen Dubai’s role as a centre of capital markets activity. At the same time, clearing, settlement and custody functions for NASDAQ Dubai equities will also migrate to DFM’s systems.
Welcoming DFSA’s decision, Jeff Singer, Chief Executive of NASDAQ Dubai, said: “Working closely with DFSA and our market participants, we have met a challenging timetable for the outsourcing. The new structure will provide DFM’s 520,000 individual investors with easier access to NASDAQ Dubai equities. It will also provide institutional investors, including those based overseas, with the same easy access that they currently enjoy.”
A spokesperson for DP World, the most heavily traded company listed on NASDAQ Dubai, said: “We are delighted that NASDAQ Dubai and DFM are taking active measures to increase regional investor access to trading shares listed on NASDAQ Dubai and improve liquidity. We look forward to working alongside Nasdaq Dubai to attract greater liquidity from the regional markets. We will work with NASDAQ Dubai to ensure fungibility with our planned dual listing."
A number of NASDAQ Dubai secondary share listings have full fungibilty with their listings on other international exchanges. These arrangements will remain in place after the outsourcing. NASDAQ Dubai is ready to work with all its listed companies to put in place fungibility arrangements that would potentially generate and facilitate greater liquidity.
In May 2010 DFM became the majority owner of NASDAQ Dubai through an acquisition of shares from Borse Dubai and NASDAQ OMX, the international exchange group.
NASDAQ Dubai remains a separate company regulated by the DFSA, the financial services regulator inside the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). It retains its own legal framework, listing rules and Members.
